Video video games may be nice autos for mysteries. The concept of gathering clues, questioning witnesses, and giving dramatic speeches the place you stun an array of suspects together with your mind makes for an thrilling fantasy. However a number of video games stumble attempting to suit the inherently open-ended, crimson-string-connecting fantasy of the detective into historically linear story constructions. The Inquisitor is a sport like that — it begins with the compelling idea of taking part in as a medieval church cop searching a vampire, however it at all times places the strings on the board for you, and thus by no means actually lives as much as the potential of its premise.
It is fairly a premise, although. As inquisitor Mordimer Madderdin, you have been dispatched to analyze the residents of a European city known as Koenigstein. What’s extra, the story is predicated on the darkish fantasy novels of Polish author Jacek Piekara, imagining an alternate spiritual historical past of Christianity through which Jesus Christ wasn’t a martyr, however as a substitute broke freed from his crucifixion and led a vengeful military to overcome the Roman Empire.
It feels a bit such as you’ve stepped into Star Trek’s Mirror Universe as you start The Inquisitor, with characters describing how mercilessness, retribution, and the ends justifying the means are virtues of their faith. For a narrative-pushed sport that guarantees robust selections to make in conversations and interrogations, it is a superb setup. Plenty of video games will put “ethical” inquiries to you, however I’ve by no means seen one other use its worldbuilding to vary the foundations underlying that morality. What you think about ethical in our actuality might not be what characters think about ethical on this one, and also you would possibly want to fret about how others will interpret your actions in methods you do not count on.
At the least, that is the underlying concept of The Inquisitor, however it would not ever actually land that feeling. The penalties of your actions shake out just about the way in which you’d count on them as to if you’re good to individuals or imply to them — or no less than, that is the way it appeared to me over two full playthroughs, the primary of which took me round eight hours. How and when your selections have an effect on the story isn’t significantly clear generally in The Inquisitor, and its principally linear, easy construction makes it actually tough to inform if and whenever you’re in a position to transfer issues in several instructions.
That stated, the story The Inquisitor tells is a reasonably compelling one, no less than for many of its runtime. The writing is basically strong, with attention-grabbing characters which are principally portrayed fairly nicely by the big voice solid, though a couple of have a look at you with animatronic-like eyes that appear like they’re attempting to flee their heads. However Koenigstein’s artwork route efficiently provides it a grimy, lived-in environment. It is typically larger than it must be in a manner that makes it really feel like a city, not a gameplay house that solely exists to carry your aims. The disadvantage is that the city is so large that almost all of your time is spent sprinting from one finish to the opposite as you chase the subsequent plot level.
As an investigator, you may listen in on conversations, study homicide victims, and scope out crime scenes sometimes, and these moments typically let you know precisely what number of clues to collect earlier than you’ll be able to transfer on. Most of your clue-accumulating skill comes from The Inquisitor’s model of Detective Imaginative and prescient; when Mordimer prays, the panorama goes grey and vital components like your vacation spot, collectible notes, clues, or scent trails you’ll be able to comply with are all highlighted. Imaginative and prescient modes like The Inquisitor’s at all times seem to be a crucial evil, since it may be robust to identify small particulars in a busy world, however that didn’t cease praying from feeling like a crutch every time I used it. It is tough to inform what’s interactive and what is not or to see particulars like a blood path resulting in a suspect with out highlighting them, however having precisely what you are searching for lit up orange on a regular basis removes any requirement for crucial considering.
You could have extra company by means of your dialog selections, significantly in interviews and interrogations. Persons are usually mendacity to you, so whether or not you are good or brusque can decide how forthcoming they will be. On the identical time, it is robust to see the place the failure factors are or if you happen to’ve tousled. In a single interrogation, through which Mordimer has a man strapped to a torture chair, you’ll be able to take the suspect at his phrase or enhance the ache. I performed this scene twice, various my method the second time understanding I might gotten false data earlier than. This time, I acquired some extra solutions I may additionally vet with my data of later scenes — however Mordimer gave up the interrogation mainly proper afterward, indicating I might discovered all I may, and he nonetheless handled data I knew was false as if it was lead. So the additional data did not really result in something new, and I used to be nonetheless left chasing a lie.
The purpose Mordimer at all times follows the improper tack is that it pushes you into one in every of The Inquisitor’s extra motion-centered ranges in a spot known as the Unworld. Mordimer can challenge himself right into a type of astral airplane populated by monsters, the place it is potential to piece collectively visions of previous occasions and be taught what really occurred, freed from the lies and confusions of the individuals you are interrogating. These sequences give Mordimer a supernatural cheat code, offering data he should not in any other case have, however additionally they make loads of these clue hunts and interrogations really feel pointless. Why hassle asking individuals for solutions and marvel in the event that they’re mendacity if you happen to’re simply going to make use of magic anyway?
The Unworld places you in a twisted, darkish reflection of Koenigstein the place you are always avoiding the detection of a flying eyeball known as the Murk whilst you seek for 5 items of a imaginative and prescient to set off a cutscene. To keep away from the Murk’s looking out gaze, you may have to dip underneath overhangs and choose the appropriate paths by means of the Unworld. Extra attention-grabbing features are added over time, similar to sword-wielding enemies and black mist that slows you down whereas alerting the Murk to your presence, and also you’ll even unlock helpful talents like a blast of sunshine to quickly blind it. However whereas the primary one or two of those ranges are tense and spooky, it shortly turns into obvious that enemies are predictable sufficient that you would be able to just about simply dash straight to every goal. As soon as I figured on the market was nothing stopping me from working full-pace across the Unworld, these segments ceased to be demanding.
Lack of problem because of common clunkiness is an issue all through The Inquisitor, weakening its in any other case first rate concepts. There are a number of occasions whenever you’ll interact in sword fights, a system that features customary issues like gentle and heavy assaults, a fast dodge, the power to dam, and a parry that opens enemies as much as counter-assaults. Theoretically, duels needs to be tense dances the place you determine your opponent’s strikes and react with the suitable counter. However I received nearly each combat by executing one or two good parries after which overwhelming my opponent with a flurry of strikes. The Inquisitor has a few harder boss fights towards extra attention-grabbing enemies, however a lot of the battles are simply received as a result of enemies simply cannot sustain with you.
Motion sequences aren’t the primary thrust of The Inquisitor, although. Simple fights and simplistic fast-time occasions may very well be forgiven, as may blobby faces and minor gaffes like characters clipping into each other, if the investigation and story have been sturdy sufficient. However these do not provide you with sufficient company to really feel satisfying; Mordimer at all times tells you precisely the place to go and what to do subsequent. Once I hit my first (dangerous) ending after eight hours, a personality chided me for permitting occasions to transpire that led to a foul final result. However after a second playthrough, I am nonetheless unsure the place I tousled, aside from a selected dialog the place I used to be presupposed to stall for time however did not stall sufficient; I had no manner of understanding which selections would have stalled greater than others, both. (Autosaves cease you from save-scumming in The Inquisitor, and after two makes an attempt at this sequence, I wasn’t keen to play by means of the entire sport a 3rd time for an additional shot at it.)
Even after I made particular selections with the advantage of hindsight — like selecting to keep away from a combat I knew would get one character killed, leading to one other character later attempting to kill Mordimer as revenge — that later scene nonetheless performed out as if that particular person had been killed. There are a couple of distinct selections that result in totally different conditions like this one, however they did not appear to materially have an effect on the story, and I by no means noticed alternatives to seek for totally different clues or comply with alternate leads.
There are occasional technical points that undercut the expertise as nicely. The Inquisitor’s finest sequence takes you right into a maze-like dungeon, the place you confront a murderous jester who’s always rhyming and taking part in a flute. This man is creepy, and whenever you discover him dismembering a sufferer, he disappears among the many jail cells, forcing you to comply with his taunts emanating from the shadows. You may gentle torches as you search, however the jester will assault you if you happen to wait within the shadows too lengthy. The presentation of the scene is great, making it legitimately frightful. The dinginess of the dungeon underneath torchlight, the cackling couplets from the darkness, and the escalation of the second as one other character exhibits up for the jester to focus on as a substitute, all made for one thing that was actually enjoyable, tense, and spooky — till I acquired misplaced within the maze.
For some purpose, the prayer skill did not work all through this sequence, so in a later portion when there aren’t any sounds to comply with, I used to be caught simply working across the dungeon, attempting to determine what The Inquisitor wished me to do. Prompts even appeared to inform me to make use of the prayer skill to see the place I needs to be going, however it simply did not work. Finally, I came upon the answer after I occurred to cross an merchandise that gave me a contextual button immediate, however by then, all the stress and fright had been drained out.